After Winter Comes the Summer
Pūhoi’s musical heritage in song, rhyme and dance
Roger Buckton, Ralf Heimrath and Judith Williams
A treasury of unique folk songs sung in the Deitsch language
New Zealand’s German-Bohemian settlers have played, sung and danced to the music, songs and rhymes collected in this treasury of folk music for over 150 years.
Sung in their dialect and played with traditional instruments, this music is a unique link between New Zealand and Bohemia, now part of Czechoslovakia. To combat the threat of this heritage being lost as time passes, the songs have been painstakingly rebuilt through interviews with descendants of those first settlers, research into European folk songs and transcriptions of recordings.
After Winter Comes the Summer also offers insights into the lives of the people of Pūhoi, and later Ōhaupō, both in their native country and in a new and unfamiliar land. It is a case study of a small colonial New Zealand village, its development and growth, its music and culture, and its relationships and links back to Bohemia.
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- CATEGORY: History, Contemporary issues
- ISBN: 9781991309037
- PUBLISHER: Massey University Press
- IMPRINT: Massey University Press
- PUBLISHED: 12/06/2025
- FORMAT: Hard cover
About the authors
Dr Ralf Heimrath’s distinguished scholarly career encompasses teaching and leadership positions at a Bavarian open-air museum, the National University of Mongolia and the University of Malta.
Judith Williams was a descendant of early Pūhoi settlers and helped establish the Puhoi Historical Society.
Roger Buckton was an adjunct associate-professor at the University of Canterbury and lectured in ethno-music, musicianship and music education. He has lived in Pūhoi since 1990.